Starbucks is the recent company to jump on the virtual assistant bandwagon as it launched on Monday two voice ordering platforms, namely, My Starbucks Barista, which is the voice-activated chatbot, for iOS mobile app and Amazon's digital assistant Alexa.
Customers can now speak their full order instead of hunting down through the menu screen when using the Mobile Order and Pay feature on the My Starbucks app. Users also pay through the app.
Thanks to artificial intelligence, the My Starbucks Barista could take orders even from a simple plain coffee to an extra complicated full meal with special instructions and standard drinks variations, the BGR reported.
"The Starbucks experience is built on the personal connection between our barista and customer, so everything we do in our digital ecosystem must reflect that sensibility," Gerri Martin-Flickinger, chief technology officer of Starbucks, said.
Starbucks also teamed up with Amazon to allow Alexa users replicate their previous orders via the new "Reorder" skill. This means that the Alexa voice ordering command is more limited as users are not allowed to deviate from their usual order or get additional items, according to Eater.
Coffee lovers could command Alexa with an Echo, Echo Dot, or other Alexa-enabled device to ask for their usual Starbucks order, which will be placed immediately to any one of the last 10 Starbucks locations the user has visited, CNN reported. Payments are done through the Starbucks app and the user's balance held on the Starbucks card.
While the Alexa skill is now ready to take customers' usual orders, the Starbucks Barista assistant is currently available to only 1,000 iOS beta testers. However, it will be rolled out nationwide this summer, and the Android app version will soon follow, possibly by the end of the year.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz also committed to hire 10,000 refugees after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East and Africa.